Here's my problem with taking diet and fitness tips from trainers of the stars: how hard could it be to make Gwyneth Paltrow skinny? I mean, she's skinny. Where's the magic? As for whipping Madonna into shape, has she ever NOT been in shape? When you're the personal trainer of these women, you can pretty much mail it in.
And so it is that I'm annoyed with Cookie magazine's February "Smart Cookie/Mother of Invention" Tracy Anderson. We're supposed believe in her because Madonna and Gwyneth pay her to work out with them. And if that's not enough, Anderson herself is a testament to her fitness secrets. Problem is, her personal story is rather frightening:
After inhaling milkshakes and chocolate and packing on 60 pounds during her pregnancy, Anderson followed her own program. She was wearing smaller clothes than ever ... SIX WEEKS LATER.
Maybe I'm in denial -- I'm eight weeks post-partum and still in my fat pants -- but that's 10 pounds a week. If Anderson didn't give birth to a water buffalo and lose 40 pounds overnight, I'm thinking that's some pretty drastic weight loss and the article should include the fine print on Slim Fast ads: results not typical.
Experts? You tell me.
Anderson doesn't exactly share her hot-mom-workout secrets, as the headline promises (Hot Mama Workout," states the cover; "learn the secrets ..." goes the sub-hed). You'll have to get her DVD for details.
Looking back: I was on blogger maternity leave for six weeks -- so corporate! -- and I didn't have a chance to congratulate Cookie on a pretty fabulous December/January issue. I'm totally serious.
On the cover was the lovely and relatable (in print, at least) mom Brooke Shields. She talks about the challenges of living on opposite coasts from her husband, which leaves her as a single mom most of the time. The girls stay with her in New York, where, in addition to going to preschool meetings and tucking them in every night, she shoots her TV series "Lipstick Jungle" [Update: um, delicately put, that juggle just got a whole lot easier. The show has been canceled.] and manages to do one of the worst of all parenting deeds: play My Little Pony with her girls.
The issue's take-away piece is family movie night recommendations, complete with flow chart that combines purpose, dinner and the personality you most resembled in high school to spit out a rental you and the kids will love!
Best of all, there's a reading list of a personal favorite, the fabulously smart and funny and sysiphean Sandra Tsing Loh.
